Maurice Leyden Maurice Leyden has been collecting folk songs since the early 1980’s.  As well as being a fine traditional singer of songs in the Northern style he has had two books published: Belfast, City of Song and Boys and Girls Come Out to Play; a collection of children’s street games and songs which was republished in November.  His third book is called “The Linen Workers” and is a social history of the Linen Industry in Ulster narrated through the songs of the workers from the pre and post Industrial Revolution eras.  It will be published n 2009 and a CD of the songs will follow. On the 4th of December he delivered a singing lecture at the Library of Congress, Washington DC on the songs and folklore of the Handloom Weavers.  For over eleven years he produced and presented his own traditional and folk radio programme Folkal Point on Downtown Radio. 2008 is the centenary of the birth of Sean O’Boyle and Maurice has been celebrating his life with a series of illustrated lectures entitled “Sean O’Boyle: in search of the Raw Bar 1952-1955.”